QINFANG, PROBABLY YIXING, PROBABLY 1898

细节

**A VERY RARE SLIP-DECORATED STONEWARE SNUFF BOTTLE
QINFANG, PROBABLY YIXING, PROBABLY 1898
The cylindrical bottle with a tapering foot and short, slightly flaring neck, painted with enamel-covered slip with a continuous design of scholars' articles, including archaic bronze vessels, a water vessel and spoon, a brazier, a vase and jardiniere containing floral sprays and bamboo, inscribed in regular script 'Written in the fifth month of the year wuzu by Qinfang', the base with two pairs of characters in calligraphic script, reading Qingwan ('Pure pleasure') in white and Wupi ('Unrivalled') in green, original enameled stoneware stopper
2 3/8 in. (5.9 cm.) high

来源

Ko Collection (Tianjin, 1938)
Christie's, London, 8 November 1976, lot 49

出版

Moss et. al .,The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J & J Collection, vol. 1, no. 260

展览

Christie's, New York, 1993
Empress Place Museum, Singapore, 1994
Museum fur Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt, 1996-1997
Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1997
Naples Museum of Art, Florida, 2002
Portland Museum of Art, Oregon, 2002
National Museum of History, Taipei, 2002
International Asian Art Fair, Seventh Regiment Armory, New York, 2003
Poly Art Museum, Beijing, 2003

注意事项

Prospective purchasers are advised that several countries prohibit the importation of property containing materials from endangered species, including but not limited to coral, ivory and tortoiseshell. Accordingly, prospective purchasers should familiarize themselves with relevant customs regulations prior to bidding if they intend to import this lot into another country.

拍品专文

This unusual method of decoration is not standard for Yixing enameled wares. The enamels are in unusually high relief, perhaps laid over, or mixed with slip, but possibly just thick enamels. The departure from normal enameling practice may arise from the fact that Qinfang may have been a scholar-artist who decided to decorate a bottle, rather than a Yixing potter who produced many. From the early nineteenth-century onwards it was common practice for the literati to collaborate with potters in the production of a range of refined, scholarly wares, and snuff bottles were no exception. Although a date sixty years earlier for this bottle cannot be ruled out, 1898 is the more likely interpretation.

The various objects decorating this bottle all would be found around a scholar's studio and represent basic pursuits of the refined literati. For example, the water vessel and ink stone, complete with its small spoon, represent painting and calligraphy; the ancient bronzes represent connoisseurship; while a number of symbolic meanings can be understood from individual, or combinations of the other elements such as flowers and other plants, and the specific forms of vessels.

The name following the cyclical date, Qinfang, is a hao or adopted art name, the character qin referring to the musical instrument and fang to the pleasure boats in which the literati sometimes spent leisurely days.